Urine Drug Testing

Versatile forensic analysis with urine

Urine testing has been as established as blood in forensic toxicology, with added versatility and easier sample collection. While blood is primarily analyzed for parent drug, urine provides both parent and metabolite. This allows a wider window of detection for urine, out to several weeks, or months, depending on the specific drug.

It is the most widely tested biological matrix, without the need of venipuncture or potential infection at the site of injection. However, one of the challenges with forensic testing of urine is preventing adulteration or sample tampering.

Forensic toxicology testing of urine includes a variety of sample preparation methods. Simple dilution procedures or extraction methods such as liquid-liquid (LLE) and solid phase (SPE) all have been useful for screening large panels of DoA.